Romans 3:23-24 gives us one of the most truthful statements that God has ever spoken concerning not only how He sees us, but also how much He loves us. This scripture says that, "Because all people have sinned, they have fallen short of God's glory. They receive God's approval freely by an act of his kindness[a] through the price Christ Jesus paid to set us free from sin" (GW).

What do you think the response would be if you told verse 23 to someone who doesn't know Jesus as their Savior? Do you think they would agree with you? Or would you be met with, "Me! A Sinner! No way!" But, whether we agree or not, God Himself says that we are all sinners! Most do not realize this fact. They may believe that we as Christians are saying this to put a guilt trip on them, to get them to see God "our" way and not the way of the world. Then there are those who would agree with you, who would say that they know they sin, but not bad enough to be kept out of Heaven. Which side are you on -- God's truth or the world's deceptions?

Verse 23 is one-hundred-percent correct when it says that we are all sinners, and have been that way since Adam and Eve disobeyed God. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit that they knew came from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil -- something they were forbidden to do by God's direct command -- they brought sin into the world because of their disobedience. From that time on, we became full-time sinners whether we wanted to or not, because Adam's and Eve's sin was passed down to us through birth. There is nothing you or I can do to make ourselves stop sinning. Nothing! Unless we go to the One who can free us from this trap we've gotten ourselves in, we can never escape sin's power over our lives. Sin's power is too strong for us to break out of. How many times have we tried to break a bad habit? How many times have we failed? Have we ever succeeded once in trying to do so? Have you ever wished that you could find a way out of your sins? Well, God has provided The Way, The Truth, and The Life!

Why would God provide us a way out, when all we do is slam the door in His face because we like to sin and want to continue doing so, because it's "fun"? Isn't God mad at us to the point of wanting to destroy us? Isn't His Wrath so great that He gave up on us a long time ago? Isn't He the rule-maker and we are the rule-breakers? Isn't God trying to take away all of our fun? The answer to these questions is a resounding NO, NO, NO!

As verse 24 says, God treats us much better than we deserve. Don't forget that God did destroy humanity once, with a flood, because men's and women's hearts were continually evil all the time. He also destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of their great sins against Him. So God has shown His wrath against His creation's disobedience in the past. That was never His plan from the beginning. His plan was for His creation to live in harmony with Him. God gave the people He destroyed many chances to reconcile with Him, but they refused Him, and His forgiveness. And since God cannot look upon sin because He is Holy, He destroyed them and started over.

But then He sent Jesus to let us know that He loves us, and still wants us to be reconciled with Him, so that we, together with Him, could enjoy the greatest relationship humans could ever have. God came down to earth, wrapped Himself in flesh, and called Himself Jesus. Jesus came to show us who God is, and to die for our sins on the cross, so that we may be freed from sin's power from the past and for the present, and the future. When we ask Jesus to come into our lives as Lord and Savior, He will cleanse us from all of our sins forever, and give us His righteousness (right standing with God). He will then freely accept us newly born people. We now have gained Heaven. Now Jesus can help us break our bad habits, help us to live better, more fruitful lives. He will help us to become the kind of person we always wished and dreamed we could be, and into the kind of person He wants us to be, what He created us to be. We all want to be somebody. When we give our lives to Jesus, we are his somebody, and that is all that matters to Him.

I Am Lying To Myself If I Say That I Am Without Sin

1 John 1:8-10 says, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives" (NIV).

These verses are the entire Gospel in a nutshell. It was because of our sins that Jesus had to die on the cross. It wasn't until Jesus took all of our sins forever upon Him own self, shed His own blood, died for us on the cross, and rose from the dead, did man have any hope of being forgiven and right again with God. Because of Jesus' act of humility and sacrifice, we are able to be forgiven of all of our sins -- forever. But the verses above make it perfectly clear that we are fooling ourselves if, for one second, we say that we have no sin, or do not sin at all. That is a lie of Satan. Satan will do whatever he can to get us to continually do acts and deeds that we know in our hearts are wrong. He will lie to us and tell us that what we are about to do is okay -- no one will get hurt, no one will ever find out. Satan doesn't want us to have all that God wants for us, because Satan wants everything of God for himself. In Isaiah 14:13-14 Satan said his famous "I" statements: "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the starts of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High" (NIV). Do you see any here that you might have said to yourself at one time or another? Have you ever told anyone that you don't need Jesus; I can run my own life? Have you ever told God that the throne you're sitting on right now (which could be any part of your life where you are in control, thinking that you do not need any body's help to overcome) is higher than his throne in Heaven? Again, as stated above, if you say that you don't sin then you are not telling the truth, neither to God, nor to yourself. Still, God already knows the truth about your sin, and is ready to forgive you of all of it, if you ask Him.

What we need to do is to confess our sins to God, and He will faithfully forgive them. How do you know that God will be faithful -- because God never lies. If He has made you a promise, you can be absolutely, positively sure that He will fulfill it! He will forgive you and then purify your heart and soul. What does it mean to be purified? It means that God will return our hearts and souls back to the state they were, as if we had never sinned at all. But from then on since we still live in a fallen world, and still have a fallen nature -- we must confess every sin that we commit, so that God can return us back to that state again. He will be faithful to forgive us every time, no matter what, and He will remember them no more.

Since God calls everything we do that is against His will a sin, then it is a sin. There is no way around it-- you sin; I sin, because that is our nature. Therefore, if we say that we are not sinners, then we are calling God a liar. If He says it is a sin to have sex outside of marriage, then it is a sin, whether it is any combination of male or female. Being a good person does not absolve you of being a sinner. There is nothing you can do to make yourself any less a sinner. That's why Jesus had to die for us, and He did it willingly, because He loves us. But if you say you are without sin, then you call God a liar (and are saying that Jesus died for nothing), because you call yourself an honest person who never hurt anybody. (Do you think that you are hurting your spouse every time you look at pornography even if he/she doesn't know you are?) But that is not the way it truly is. When we say these things, we are telling God that we don't need Him, which tells Him that we believe that His Word (Jesus) has no place in our lives. We believe that we can go on just as we are, day after day, and give no thought to our eternal destiny. If you are not forgiven by God, then you are still living in your sins. Every sin you have ever committed is still with you, staining your soul, bringing you closer to a spiritual death. When you die, your spirit is going to go somewhere. The Bible says that, if you die in your sins, then you will go to Hell, a literal place that is not a fantasy of someone's imagination. But if you ask God to forgive you of all those sins, then you are telling God that you need Him after all. You will be born again spiritually, and now, when you die, your spirit will go to Heaven to be with Jesus forever and ever.

Today, won't you admit that you are a sinner, and confess to God that you no longer want to be the god of your own life? God loves you very much and will instantly and happily take over the reigns of your life and bring you freedom from your sins. If you do, you will be calling Satan a liar, and that's okay, because Satan already knows that he is a liar, and you can tell him that face to face, once you have given God your sins and your life.

"Scripture Marked (NIV) taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved."

Scripture marked (GW) is taken from GOD'S WORD, 1995 God's Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group.

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Bobby Bruno was saved 15 years ago in a way that left him no doubt that Jesus wanted him to reach others with His great and abounding love. He started writing at the age of 12 and hasn't stopped since. He achieved Associates Degree in Biblical Studies from Ohio Christian University in early 2014.